


a different kind of perfect

by orphan_account



Category: Rooster Teeth/Achievement Hunter/Funhaus RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern, Anxiety, Artist!Gavin, F/F, High School, M/M, Panic Attacks, Symbolism, Tattoos, lovely friendships, photographer!Michael, purple and red
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-03
Updated: 2016-04-03
Packaged: 2018-05-30 21:11:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,090
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6440956
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>meg is instantly enthralled by the boy who draws with purple crayon. the purple streaks through her life, colouring every aspect and fusing itself to the red that comes in later.</p>
            </blockquote>





	a different kind of perfect

They met in kindergarten. Gavin was colouring wildly with a purple crayon, wild scribbles adorning his paper. Meg watched him as the scribbles grew more ornate and detailed. She sat, mesmerized, as the colour flowed across the paper towards her and away from her and she decided that purple was her favourite colour.

“Hi.” She said and the boy looked up. “I’m Meg. I like your drawing.” The boy’s mouth hung open, and in a split second he had shoved the papers into her hands and situated himself at another table. She tacked that paper up on her wall that night.

The boy seems to avoid her, or rather avoid everyone, but she keeps watching him. And she sees him one day on the playground. He is sitting in the grass with a notebook in front of him and he is colouring. Meg looks at the boy, then the swings, then the boy again and she sits cross-legged next to him.

“That one’s really cool, too.” She says and the boy looks up again. “What’s your name?” He falters for a few seconds before finding his voice.

“I’m Gavin.” His voice is quiet and different than any one that she had heard before.

“Can I colour with you?” Wordlessly, he hands over a crayon and they sit and draw until they are called back inside. They do it the next day, and the next, and the next.

Meg quickly learns what makes Gavin different and it’s not his accent. He doesn’t like talking to people he doesn’t know or even people he does, she is the exception. Colouring helps calm him down and he told her once that ‘sometimes it feels like there’s fire under my skin’. Sometimes he’ll cry and shake uncontrollably and all she can do is wrap her arms around him and whisper. Sometimes he’ll think he can’t breathe and she has to guide him through it. But it’s not a problem. It’s just Gavin being Gavin.

They go through elementary school together and the number of drawings on Meg’s walls steadily increase.

They start middle school and they discover video games and that’s how they spend their afternoons. Meg tries to win while Gavin shrieks and falls off of buildings. They have fun and they laugh and their world is perfect and then it’s not.

Meg finds Gavin in a hallway, shuddering with his face buried in his knees. She takes him in her arms and hushes him and when she looks up she sees the blood trailing down his face from his split lip and the bruises on his face.

She gets suspended for a week after beating up Gavin’s bullies, but it’s worth it because then everyone leaves her and Gavin alone and Gavin clings to her much tighter than before. They get through middle school relatively unscathed.

In their freshman year of high school, Gavin dyes Meg’s hair in her bathroom. It comes out a beautiful purple like the one in the drawing in the middle of her wall and she beams at Gavin. 

Gavin gets hurt again and she finds him crying quietly in an empty classroom.  She growls and vows to get them back but Gavin protests.

“No, Turney, no. You can’t. What am I supposed to do if you get expelled…?” So Meg doesn’t hurt them, but she whispers threats in their ears and then smiles widely at them as she bounces away. 

Meg and Gavin spend more time with each other, beating video games and talking and drawing. Gavin is much better than Meg and she knows that.

“I want you to design my first tattoo.” She says in their sophomore year and they start planning at three a.m.. Gavin’s sketchbook is nearly full of designs and half thought out plans and he vows to her that he will make it perfect.

It’s their junior year and they’re at Meg’s house, shouting over video games. Then Gavin stops and leans over to her, trying to kiss her, and she leans over.

“Gav, no. You don’t like me like that.” He looks at her, then bursts into tears. She envelops him in a hug and holds him through the tears and shaking. She is sad, but she doesn’t let herself cry. The thing is, she could see her life 

Gavin. They would get through the rest of high school and they would sit in the back of movie theaters and make their own sarcastic commentary. And then they’d go to the same college and get an apartment and he would make her coffee and he would hold her hand during her tattooing and she would hold him when he cried. But she knew, she knows, that this was never possible. And as the sun breaks the horizon and colours the sky that purple, Gavin chokes out “I’m gay.” And Meg pets his hair.

“I know.”

Nothing really changes after that, they’re best friends and the high schoolers are still scared of them. They go out to movies together and make their own sarcastic commentary in the back rows and they get kicked out because Meg makes Gavin laugh too hard.

They go to prom together in their senior year and Gavin wears a tux and Meg wears a dress as purple as her hair. A few minutes in Gavin gets overwhelmed and they leave. They get ice cream and sit on picnic table and laugh.

They don’t go to their graduation, instead they fall, laughing, into a tattoo parlor and Gavin shows the design to the tattoo artist and Meg for the first time. It’s an intricate pattern of flowers curling around each other.

“There are forget-me-nots because I want you to remember me forever. Aster for your patience and gardenia because you are lovely. I put in sunflowers because I adore you and white roses for our unity. Do you like it…?” With tears in her eyes, Meg throws her arms around Gavin. He holds her hand while she gets tattooed. She leaves the shop with the flowers on her forearm and a ‘G’ in a heart over her heart. Gavin leaves the shop with a ‘M’ in a heart over his heart.

They end up getting into the same college and Gavin picks Meg up and spins her around when they find out.

They pack together and Meg has a solid box of Gavin’s art. The first of which to be hung up in their shared apartment is the oldest purple one in a dark frame.

Gavin gets her a French press for her birthday and they make way too much coffee and everything is perfect.

College is a lot for Gavin and he panics more than ever before. Meg holds him in the night as he cries and draws. He drops out after a few months, saying that it was too much, and Meg understands and they stay in the same apartment.

One day she gets home and Gavin picks her up and spins her around and he is laughing much too much.

“What happened?” She asks when he finally puts her down.

“I got a printing offer for my graphic novel!” And she smiles and whoops and picks Gavin up.

They go to the comic store once it’s printed and Meg strokes the small drawn girl with purple hair who looks oddly like her and the small drawn boy with flicky hair who looks oddly like Gavin.

Meg drags Gavin out roller skating one night and he is horrible at it.

“You fall more than a baby giraffe!” Meg says, laughing as she pulls Gavin off the floor. The next time he falls, he falls into the arms of a redhead who is much better than skating at him. His name is Michael and they laugh and Meg is glad to see Gavin happy.  Gavin complains to her the next day about not getting Michael’s number as he paints Meg’s likeness on a large canvas.

Gavin gets offered a spot in a gallery and he works around the clock making enough pieces to fill it. There is a lot of Meg, various purples and her face everywhere and there is some of the pair together.

On the opening night, Gavin is dressed in a tux and a purple bowtie and Meg has on a purple dress that matches her hair. Gavin nearly falls over when none other than Michael from the roller rink comes through the door. Gavin bounces up to him and they start talking and the girl that was on Michael’s arm slips away from the two and comes to stand next to Meg. She’s wearing a red dress that matches her hair.

“Is he yours?” She asks, nodding at Gavin. Meg shakes her head.

“He’s my best friend.” The girl nods.

“Michael’s mine. My best friend, I mean.” She looks at the pair of Michael and Gavin. “They go well together. I’m Lindsay.”

“Meg.” She says and the two girls with coloured hair become fast friends.

The two pairs go out on double dates, Meg sitting next to Lindsay and across from Gavin, Gavin sitting across Meg and next to Michael. They see movies and get kicked out because Gavin spills his drink all over Michael and Michael yells too loudly. It is a different kind of perfect and Meg is happy.

Meg comes home one day and Gavin picks her up and spins her around.

“I got another graphic novel offer!” And she hugs him and smiles and they play video games all night. 

The next time they go to the comic store, Michael and Lindsay are with them and Meg runs her fingers over the purple haired girl that looks like her, the boy with flippy hair who looks like Gavin, and the two new characters, a boy with russet curls and a hat pulled over them who looks like Michael, and a girl with long red hair who looks like Lindsay

Meg graduates college and the four of them buy a house just out of the city. It’s a big move, but the house is comfortable and the four fit into it perfectly. Framed on the wall is Gavin’s first purple picture, above it is a painting Gavin did of the four of them, arms slung loosely around each other, and below it is a picture that Michael took of the four of them in a tree house. It is a different kind of perfect and they love it.

Gavin continues his art exhibitions and his graphic novels and he becomes famous, but he leaves his fame untouched and abandons the crowds and people for Meg’s arms on the sofa in their house. Michael continues his photography career, using any excuse to use Gavin, Meg, and Lindsay as models, and his pictures are commended for their feeling. Meg and Lindsay open a cafe not far from their house, but in the city. They call it A Latte Love and it becomes Gavin’s favourite place to draw and Michael’s favourite place to take pictures.

The next time Meg enters a tattoo shop, her tattoo expands up her arm. Gavin shows her and the tattoo artist another sketch of a tall red rose and a red cactus flower looping into her other tattoo. The four leave the tattoo parlor, each with a small heart on their hip. Gavin’s and Meg’s are purple while Lindsay and Michael’s are red, but they are the same heart and it links them together.

Gavin and Lindsay propose on the same day, at the same place, at the same time. The four are at the roller rink and Michael’s camera is slung loosely over his shoulder as Gavin’s sketchbook is clutched in his hands. 

They have a small joint wedding and the bouquets are made of the same flowers as Meg’s tattoo. Michael wears a red bow tie that matches Lindsay’s dress and Gavin wears a purple bow tie that matches Meg’s dress. As Lindsay kisses her and as Michael kisses Gavin, she is so glad that this is the perfect that she chose because it fits so, so well and her thoughts fly back to the first purple picture and the two children sitting cross-legged on the playground. She is pulled out of her thoughts as she is pulled onto the dance floor by Lindsay and they dance next to Gavin and Michael. Halfway through, they switch partners and Gavin rests his head on her shoulder and she is so happy because everything is perfect.

**Author's Note:**

> hey i liked this. also i have posted three stories in a day, heck yeah.   
> but i'm really proud of this  
> comment please


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